The two Irish chasers dominate the betting for this year’s renewal of the Queen Mother Champion Chase which they have won between them for the last two years but it was the more recent winner, Sizing Europe, who prevailed as both horses had their final runs before the Cheltenham Festival.

Andrew Lynch adopted positive tactics on Sizing Europe as he took over from Imperial Shabra after jumping the first fence and gave a display of fast and accurate fencing to beat Big Zeb 15 lengths.

“That was a savage performance, it’s all systems go now for Cheltenham,” said winning trainer Henry De Bromhead.

Lynch added: “He’s done it well. The plan was to go out and enjoy it and use his jumping. I wanted to use his big stride and though the ground was tacky he’s getting stronger now and handles it better.

“He should improve for that – he hasn’t run since the Tingle Creek.”

Big Zeb’s trainer Colm Murphy still has Cheltenham on the agenda but could not hide his disappointment.

“Robbie Power was never happy with him today – he said he was always niggling just to keep in touch,” said Murphy.

“In fairness, the winner was very good – he’s gone a proper gallop on heavy ground.

“We’ll improve for the run, but we’ll have to.”

William Hill reacted by slashing Sizing Europe to 6-4 for the Champion Chase next month.

Earlier there was an equally impressive performance from Trifolium to win the Grade